PARTISAN REVIEW
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why not? So she brought the frog home and she took it to bed
with her and the next morning she woke up - and lying next to
her was this tall, handsome, naked young Prince. And that's the
way she explained it to her parents when they walked in on the
two of them. What's the moral of the story?
ABE: The moral is you're a very cynical man.
COHN:
You want dinner? Then discuss it intelligently.
ABE:
(leaves the table and returns to his own chair)
The moral is
you take a classic fable with charm and beauty that deals with
dreams and imagination and you change it into men's room hu–
mor. That's the moral. What you reveal of yourself.
(leaves his
chair, crosses to the typewriter, punches a key, and sits back down
again)
COHN :
You would believe the girl's story?
ABE: I beg your pardon, I wouldn't be her prosecutor. I leave that
to you.
COHN:
Supposing you're the girl's father?
ABE: I would face the problem with compassion.
COHN:
First admitting it's a problem!
ABE: A man in bed with my daughter? At first - until the situa-
tion's cleared up, I have to admit it's a problem.
COHN:
Then she tells you the story of the frog.
ABE: Which clears up everything.
COHN:
You believe about the frog?
ABE: What's important is she believes about the frog. We didn't
bring her up to lie.
COHN:
You'd rather have her crazy than lie.
ABE: Why is that crazy?
COHN:
Or hallucinating.
ABE: Because her mind can conjure with change - with ugliness
turning into beauty - you call that hallucinating? And what
you
see - only beauty turning into ugliness - you call that reality? I
beg your pardon, Cohn, you're living in a stacked deck. You give
me a choice, I prefer frogs into Princes over Princes into frogs.
COHN:
Even
if
it's not so.
ABE: How do we know? All I'm saying is we don't know.
COHN:
Do we know that you're Abe and I'm Cohn?
ABE: In this life.
